I made the dive into a larger world, and upgraded the current Laser cutting setup with a new machine. Previously, all my projects ran with an xTool D1 Pro, with a basic 10W LED laser. I had the option at the time for the 40W, but opted for the lower power mainly due to cost, but also since it has a much more precise laser dot. However, where I messed up was not realizing that acrylic is a challenge (or impossible) for LED lasers to cut, which was one of the main projects I wanted to be able to do. Over the last couple of years, the machine has performed well, I have made many projects and have a successful Etsy entity with a couple of solid products. As long as I restricted myself to 5mm plywood or thinner, there was no issues, except for the occasional incorrect focus of the laser (user error).
Now however I have decided that this is no longer just a curiosity, but something I have really gotten focused into. It allows for my engineering background to be exercised designing new products and items, and gives me outlets for the crafting world with the results. As such, I have added an xTool P2 CO2 laser to the set, installed and operational as of yesterday. I obviously need some tweaks and adjustments from my initial tests, but the results are impressive. Wood burns well, engraves well, and cuts (mostly) cleanly. The cutting volume is a bit bigger, if a different form factor (12×24 instead of 16×16). But the speed is a vast improvement – my Star Wars Legion Dashboard was taking about 4 hours on the D1 Pro, with the P2 is it now estimated at 20 minutes. Since the volume of cleanup is much reduced as well, this should help produce items that much faster. And I can now cut acrylic of all forms, colors, and transparencies, which I was quick to test out with the sample clear acrylic included. After only a minute or two, I had a clean cut and very nice little thread chip for the wife stitching collection. No doubt will be adding more of those in the future.
Sadly, the new device is far larger than the old one, so my garage is a bit overcrowded now. As such, I will be selling off the old D1 Pro to a new owner hopefully soon. If you are on our Discord channel, live in the area, and are interested, let me know. I really doubt I am willing to ship it anywhere, the chance of damage is just too big, but otherwise it will just sit on the side looking sad at this point. To my knowledge, there is nothing that an LED laser can do, that a CO2 laser cannot, except for perhaps the detail and dot size.
Even more disturbing – literally the week after I had ordered, but before the unit was shipped, xTool announced a new version, the P2S. Initially I was really annoyed and considered canceling the order (with associated penalty fees). After watching reviews though, I am not that concerned. The big differences are a stronger exhaust fan and an easy to remove and clean air filter – everything else is apparently the same. That did make me concerned that the exhaust would not be strong enough, but after my initial testing (including some very heavy smoke), I am not concerned at all. My system ran great, and since I am in a garage with the door open, the exhaust is directly to the outdoors. Plus, I didn’t want to wait another couple of months to get the first of the production models, I can laser now in time for the holidays.
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